To those who celebrate the Equinoctial New year - Happy Nowruz!!

Actually - Happy Nowruz to all of you!

I have just published a novel - fiction, sort-of-science-fiction, surreal, abstract - and (I hope) rather funny.
If you want to look at it, it's available at (paperback): Unremembered Future   
ebook at: Unremembered Future (ebook)

Other works include:

A children's novel (paperback): Emerald Pie (ebook): Emerald Pie (ebook)
Teaching stories (for children) (paperback) The Carpenter's Carpet
Pantomime "Aladdin" (paperback) A Lad in Knaphill. and his Magic Lamp
Pantomime: "Cinderella" (paperback) Cinderella - and her Bearded Sisters
Poetry (Talossan and other) (paperback): Poesie

Enjoy!

When I die I want to still be a Talossan.  So clearly I must interact sufficiently with the realm – still be in contact with it.

But the words "When I die I still want to be a Talossan" have another, deeper, meaning.  When I have died I still want to be a Talossan, even though I cannot then interact with it.  Outside of Talossa I am also a citizen of Ireland.  When I die I shall be a "deceased citizen of Ireland" – my Irishness is not taken away from me at my death, I will still be Irish.  Many, many realms on Earth are like that – death does not change your nationality.  Why cannot Talossa be like that too?

Yes – I have heard various off the cuff statements about our already having degrees of citizenship – so get on with it Ian, and stop complaining.  What already exists cannot be changed.  So there.

But wait – we already honour our citizens with marks of status, and labels of quality of achievement in this or that.  Why not also bestow upon a deceased citizen a formal title like "LDT" (Loyal Deceased Talossan) or "HIT" (Honoured In Talossa) – it's up to someone who knows our language in detail to produce the right term, the right letters.  And someone who is "HIT" (or whatever we choose) will no longer be obligated to respond to a census or vote at an election – that will not (cannot!) be counted against him or her.

Come on, lads and lasses – let's discuss this and create legislation to implement it.

Where have I been?

You may (but probably have not!) noticed that I've not been around much lately.  I still think Talossa is a superb idea and a most splendid realm – and nothing I do can (or should) change that.  But I am also getting older – and, again, there is nothing I can do to change that.

Are these two facts in conflict?  Well, sort of.  No, I sit at my computer keyboard most of the time during the day, typing madly away – but Yes, I'm too busy, in the (probably) short time left to me, writing new or completing previous books.  This last year I have completed and published a novel, completed and published (privately) a set of stories suitable for children, completed (and published privately) half a book of Star Wars 'incidents' – and the "half" is intentional, as I want to introduce my eldest grandchild to the art of writing – he will have to add the final chapters, under my guidance – and I have also constructed a radio script from one of my previous books (again, for children). Now I'm working on a novelette (whose plot involves an eccentric old man – a sort of self portrait – trying to find out why there is still water in the moat round a ruined castle.  Watch this space.)

Should any of you want copies of any of these or my previous works, just get in touch with me – all proceeds go to charity (Save The Children Fund).  [FYI it's better to contact me through idkk@idkk.com which I look at far more often than my Talossan email].

Though I am at my computer, I have very little spare time to be visible and productive in Talossa.  To give one example, I speak French, and hence Cézembre (the island from which our glorious Province draws its name) is most definitely a geographical place I should visit – but, alas, I am too (physically) unfit to get there.  Sigh.  I would love to once more see, in person, our monarch (hi John!), and shake the hand of our scribal linguist (hi Manus!), and our New Zealand polymath (hi Daphne!)... or should that be polymathS?... and our highly talented musical Taloss-historian (greetings, GV!)... and all the others of you, not forgotten but too numerous to mention, in many different parts of the globe (Sweden, Scotland, the UK, the USA, India, Canada... etc.).  Hello Everybody!
If any of you Talossans are ever in the UK, please contact me and we can have a drink or meal together - I live immediately next door to a Pub which has been running since 1582.  If you don't know what a Pub is, then you will have a great time finding out!

Being on the one hand in Talossa, and on the other hand writing to and about Talossa are very different things.  I do read most of the postings, but my batches of reading are spread apart in time: I try to read everything, but postings may be two or more weeks out of date before I get the (personal) time to look at them.  Rather than make comments on "old news", I just read it without comment (usually).  So, although I'm here, I'm not usually visible.

And if I'm not visible for more than a year?  Well, I've probably moved "elsewhere": Noli Timere Messorem.

Take care, all of you.

I *think* I have voted in this Clark - but in case my vote has been lost, here it is repeated:

RZ11 - Austeneu
RZ12 - Contra
RZ13 - Per
RZ14 - Contra
RZ15 - Per
RZ16 - Per
RZ17 - Per
RZ18 - Per
voc  - Non

If there is any conflict, this posting (20 May 2023 18:55 BST) is the definitive version

Aha! A Questionnaire! Let's see how Talossan I am...

Q1. Do you have a favourite sports team? Who and why?
Sports? I've never been interested in sports... Sumo is perhaps my favourite – but that's not a team sport.

Q2. What are your favourite hobbies during your free time?
Reading, listening to music, writing music, writing books.  Highest on the list, though, is listening to music.

Q3. Pixar or Marvel?
<puzzled look> ?? what??

Q4. If you had the opportunity to live in the capital city of any sovereign nation, other than Talossa, which would it be and why?   
Oh, that's easy – Paris. It is beautiful, it I full of great art, it is elegant, I loved the food there... and it's where I first visited on my honeymoon.

Q5. How do you cut your sandwiches? Diagonally, not at all, or another shape? Maybe you take off the crust?
Probably diagonally – though on picnics they're square-ish. I don't really care how they're cut – just let me eat them!

Q6. Do you have a favourite podcast to recommend?
No one favourite, though I do listen to some of the BBC podcasts from time to time.

Q7. Apple or Android? 
Silly question <grin>: Apple, of course! Is anything else possible?

Q8. What is Talossa's most attractive feature?  What brought you here?
Its people and its eccentricity.

Q9. Which one of the Rocky movies is the best?
<another puzzled look> What? What are you talking bout? (Actually, I know what you're talking about, but – really – that's an obscene question!)

Q10. Skydiving, or deep-sea exploratory submarine?
I would love to go deep-sea.  The water on this planet teems with extraordinary life, and elegant complexity and huge emptiness and dense crowds of living creatures: it is beautiful.
Now if you had asked about outer space – ah, that would have certainly been at the top of my list.

Q11.  What is your favourite movie and why?
Not sure. Princess Bride? Coming to America? Shakespeare in Love? West Side Story?

Q12.  Do you have a favourite Avenger?
<yet another puzzled look> what?

Q13. What would be three books, articles, or other such materials that you might recommend to all of Talossa for reading?   
Three very different books: "Once On A Time", A.A.Milne; "The Faber Book of Modern Verse" (1952 edition); "Life A User's Manual" / "La vie mode d'emploi" Georges Perec.
Why? The Milne is a lovely fairy story, both adult and child, full of humour. The modern verse is precious to me, as sentimentally part of my teenage years, and beyond – my real introduction to poetry. The Perec is just like a delicate jigsaw puzzle (analogous to his own description of it), which links together different strands of narrative into one beautifully entwined whole.

Q14.  Who/what is your favourite music artist/band/genre?
Ooh – this could be a long answer! My favourite music is that of Bach – his organ works in particular – though Mozart is nearly as good. The artist(s)? I'm not sure that I have one favourite: it is the music itself that speaks. Genre? Boring, I know – but without doubt classical. And that covers everything from the 12th century to the 21st, and (in my opinion) includes jazz and Stravinsky and Ives and Vivaldi and Debussy and... <insert long list here>

Q15. Are you a reader, a writer, a speaker, or a listener?
I read a lot. I write quite a bit. I speak in public quite often – and I get a huge amount from listening.  So, all four.

Q16. What are your distinct and separate feelings on the colours of green, red, and pink?
We can see more shades of green than any other colour (I am told). When I look out of the windows where I live there is green everywhere. Red reminds me of infrared, and heat, and red shift, and danger and fire. Strong, violent. But pink? I am fed up with pink being a "girl's colour". I'm a bloke, but I have pink shirts; my wife is definitely a girl, and wears blue. My daughter is driven bonkers by the fact that boy's teeshirts have brutal logos on them, and are of "macho" colours – brown, khaki, brilliant orange with power words and heroes emblazoned on them, but girls clothes are pink and soft and have fluffy edges and pink and have no pockets and pink and don't like mud and pink... Which is a pity, because there are some very lovely pink flowers.
And girls do like mud.

Q17.  Do you have a favourite flavour of ice cream? If not, what is a favourite dessert? 
Um chocolate-ginger... or maybe rum and raisin or perhaps raspberry ripple... my wife is a wonderful cook!

Q18.  How do you feel about jam versus jelly? 
Translation, please. Jam is the sticky stuff, usually a preserved fruit with sugar, which comes in a jar. Jelly is that wobbly stuff that's transparent / translucent, sometimes is served (wobbling) on a plate, and of all sorts of (wobbling) bright colours loved by kids (including me). One of my friends says that it's impossible to find completely vegetarian jelly, but (hush) don't tell your animal-loving friends.

Q19. Do you play any video games in your free time? Which?
Not really. Sudoku occasionally.

Q20.  If you could eat an apple right now, or a pear, which would you rather?
Depends on the time of year. Right now (middle of June, northern hemisphere), an apple; but later in the year, when the pear tree in our garden is in fruit, a pear.

I said, a while ago, that before the end of March I would write, and publish, a detailed description of my thinking in and about the most recent Cort case for which I sat on the bench. Well, good friends, I break my promise. And I apologise.

I am in one of the most vulnerable groups, being in real danger should I catch Covid-19 (I have only about a 4 in 5 chance of surviving). Hence I am completely locked down here at home, staying utterly clear of everyone, except for my darling – and very patient – wife. And, good fellow citizens of this noble nation, it pains me to remind you that there are more important things in life than the onerous burdens of careful official thought here. You may have noticed that I proudly announce myself to be a philosopher, and so I am – and by long experience I have learned that philosophy and careful thought cannot be a rushed affair, but must be given time and space in which to be examined from all sides.

And, even though I am nearly 75 Earth years old [I have calendars that tell me my age in Mars years, and Venus phases, and I wot not else!], I am very busy – busy with the things I simply must finish before I pass on, things which no-one else can do. Someone else can examine my past postings here both in and outside the Cort, and draw conclusions on what I might have meant or could have been thinking – but no-one else can finish writing the music I am writing, or planning the rest of the (long) book I am writing. Someone else can persuade Talossa to enter the twenty-first century and use metric measures (and UTC?) as very nearly every other country in the world does [aircraft hight being measured in feet is absurd – and that will, and must, change!] – but no-one else can be grandfather to my grandchildren, can finish writing for them the stories I have started... I have already written and published two books for children, but I need to finish my third one (currently in progress). I want them to remember me.

I have no doubt that you too, my Talossan friends, and those who come to this nation after me, will remember or (just sometimes) mention me; and I have no intention of disappearing totally just yet – I enjoy life, and want to hang on to it as long as I can... but, being realistic, "as long as I can" is not very long.

From other postings you will have learned by now that I have resigned as the most senior Justice. I no longer have the concentrated time that is needed to put my real mental efforts into that interesting – and important – office. Time is, alas, our one finite resource.

But still you will see me lurking in corners of our chambers, and abroad in our highways, and popping up from time to time to make a suggestions, or crack a joke, or throw a stone when I see some bad logic, or hatred, or impoliteness – but you will not see me doing any official business. You will see me, and maybe hear me, on some of our real-time meetings (whatever did we do before Skype and Zoom and Facetime??) and I can explain face to face (if you ask, and if you are interested!) what I was thinking about – what I am thinking about, and what my opinions are.

Thank you all for being who you are. Let's carry on having fun together.

Some of you may have noticed - but many of you will not - that I have been absent from our splendid nation for several days.  That is because I am tired.  Not tired of Talossa - perish the thought! - but physically tired.  I am now (I think) the oldest of our citizens - I was born in 1945, and will shortly be three quarters of a century old. I am trying to catch up on all those things I "should" have done earlier in my life, but "never got round to". This occupies more of my time than I anticipated, and - yes - it is tiring. For those of you that are interested (and that's possibly no-one <grin> ) I am writing my tenth book - a book I started on years ago, and which has got more and more complicated the more I research it... it's about Interstellar Travel, and it is science fact, not science fiction. I am also proofreading my nineth book - which is already published, but needs corrections in future editions... that's a book of music - mostly male-voice music from rare copies, and from printed versions that require both corrections and performance notes.

That means I do not (at the moment) have the time or the energy to give my full attention to the current/recent actives in the Cort. It would be remiss of me - very remiss - to jump in and make comments in the Cort, or outside of the Cort about legal actions, without having read and understood all that has been said since I was last here.   I recognise that the most recent case in which I gave judgement has ignited much discussion, not all of it temperate.  I would like to make some detailed comments on how I reached my decisions, and why - and I shall try to do that before the end of next month - March 2020/XVI.

I shall temporarily sign off here, with the reminder of what I have said (or hinted at) often in the past: the function of Justice is Justice, not Law. Human law is an attempt to codify Justice, but in final analysis Justice cannot fully be codified or restricted into unwavering pre-ordained channels - it is more subtle, and deeper, than that.

The judgement of the CPI has been published on "the old-Witt".

There being no further (visible) cort cases active, I suggest that all Cort business be moved over to this talossa.com

Ián Tamorán S.J., C.J.